Who will make the team?

We can pretty much guarentee the Canuck’s won’t make a huge splash on July 1st and the very biggest move that could be made will be a trade involving Schiender. So let’s see what these few moves could be, and see what’s left and who has a shot at the getting the final roster spots. First of all I just want to say Cory Schiender was overrated and now is probably the most underrated player in the NHL. Okay he’s no Luongo. Canuck fans he’s not that good. Everyone else he’s not Rayflop #2. He will likely have the same value of maybe Ryan Miller if he reachs near his max potential, and since Schiender will likely develop atleast a bit more he at the worst will have around the same value as David Aebischer. HE HAS VALUE AND WILL BE A FAIRLY GOOD GOALIE!!! He was unbelievable in the playoffs and if they wrote that top 50 prospects thing a few months later he would be atleats a 4 or 5 spots higher.

Trades:

To San Jose: Cory Schiender
To Vancouver: Steve Bernier

Since San Jose will likely trade one of the goalies (Wilson said they will), Schiender can backup Nabokov (assuming they keep him over Toskela), but play 20-28 games, and still develop. The Sharks have a few goalies in there system, but likely no one who will be more then a cheap decent starter. The Canuck’s need a proven goal scorer and Bernier has proven he can put up number’s. He put up 31 points this year, and will likely become at the least a 55 point scorer (fairly good). There are virtually no cheap right winger who play on a team without a goalie problem (The Sharks won’t have a goalie problem when the season starts). Bernier is a power forward which the Canuck’s need.

Resign:

Taylor Pyatt, 2 years, 1.5 mil.
Jan Bulis, 2 years, 1.3 mil.
Lukas Krajicek, 3 years, 900k
Dany Sabourin, 1 year, 600k

Let go:

Brian Smolinski
Jeff Cowen (he’ll get more then 1.0 mil. like Rutuu)
Trevor Linden (will retire)
Brent Sopel
Tommi Santala
Josh Green

Sign:

Petr Sykora, 3 years, 3.0 mil.

The Lineup:

Sedin-Sedin-Bernier
Sykora-Kesler-Naslund
Pyatt-Morrison-Cooke
?-?-Bulis
extra: Alex Burrows, ?

Bieksa-Mitchell
Ohlund-?
Salo-Krajicek
extras: ?

Luongo
Sabourin

Okay so there’s three roster spots left, so who will take them?

Here’s a list of candidates:

Michael Grabner likely won’t make the team unless he can make the top 3 lines, since he would be the worst penalty killer EVER!!! He plays horrendous defense. He will likely need a year to become stronger, and learn to play a better two way game.

Jannik Hansen is the most likely candidate to make it on left wing. He has great speed, and was able to keep up in the NHL playoffs. He actually even got quite a few scoring chance’s, and was actually one of the Canuck’s better forwards. He is guerenteed to make the team, but he definatly has the edge over everybody.

Rick Rypien showed he is able to be atleast a depth player at the NHL level, and unless he gets hurt in tryouts he will be on the team. He isn’t a star, but is good a depth player.

Mason Raymond is the only player except for Grabner and maybe Hansen who could put up big number’s at the NHL level (Hansen probably won’t). Raymond has ton’s of skill and was the Mouse’s best forward when he joined them late in the year. He will push Hansen for the final left wing spot. He probably is better then Hansen, but since Hansen played with the big club last year he will have the edge.

Luc Bourdon is going to be a star, but he might not be ready. He has to be able to make the top 5 (ahead of Krajicek) to make the team. I think he will, but he is a physical player, and will have a hard time adjusting.

Alex Edler showed he can play at the NHL level, and he could become a very good player. He could will become atleast become more valuable then Ohlund, and could become a lot like Andrei Markov.

The team after training camp:

Sedin-Sedin-Sykora
Naslund-Kesler-Bernier
Pyatt-Morrison-Cooke
Raymond-Bulis(can play center)-Hansen
extras: Burrows, Rypien

Bieksa-Mitchell
Ohlund-Edler
Salo-Krajicek
extras: UFA

Luongo
Sabourin

Thta team is pretty good. They won’t be Cup contenders, but could surprise people. I think Sykora would work well with Henrik Sedin (he was lights out with Hemsky), and Bernier and Kesler would help save Nazzy.

What are your thoughts?